Ashe Knightley

Dealing with silence was something I grew accustomed to over the years, but coming from Valarya was something else entirely.

I should've felt guilty for saying what I did. Staring at her now, her body gently swaying from the creaking of the waves. Not to mention my already existing sea sickness. Maybe all of this wouldn't be in vain; I could throw my father off the Entorrean throne and hand it down to Kace while I finished whatever it was I was doing now.

What was I doing? For years I had been looking through the Saints' and Gods' information, trying to link them all to the dark faes. My progress was minimal. The only real progress was finding out Valarya was the Cadice descendent, but could that help anything?

Nausea flooded my system. I scrambled up from my cot and navigated my way to the deck, doing my best to not slam into the walls. What kind of waves had the strength of an earthquake?

My body collided with a stack of crates. Saints, what kind of sea storm was this?

Adjusting myself again, I made my way to the deck. Valarya was a heavy sleeper, so she'd probably somehow sleep through this—whatever this was.

"Rysdan, wake up," I whispered into his room.

He groaned, flipping in his bedroll. "Who's dying now?" Rysdan muttered into his pillow.

"Fine, stay asleep." I clicked his door shut and continued to the deck. The darkness of the staircase grew, only making my heart race more. Swallowing, I took a firm step up the darkness.

I was almost at the top before I stumbled down all the way down the stairs, breaking the stack of crates. Footsteps echoed from the hall I came through. As I jerked back up, I caught sight of a female silhouette.

"Val?"

"Ashe? You're awake?" Relief washed over me once I heard her voice. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her behind me as we went up the stairs. "What's going on?" she asked.

"A storm."

"We'll be okay, right?"

I tightened my grip on her. "Of course," I whispered. The reassurance in my voice probably wasn't the strongest, because as we finally got to the top of the stairs, she held on harder to my arm. "It's all right. Just a sea storm."

"I got scared you left," she admitted, "since I woke up and didn't see you in the room."

I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "It's going to take a lot more than a sea storm to leave you."

"How reassuring," she said, nudging me to the side. We slowly paced around the deck, watching the sea water mildly splash overboard. "I don't feel well."

"Sea sickness?" I asked.

She shook her head, resting her side to mine. "I don't think so. I don't think... Ashe, something's really wrong. I've been feeling like this for days."

My heart sunk as I glanced down at her. We had been safe whenever we... She couldn't possibly be—

"I'm not pregnant," she reassured. Her grip was looser on my arm as she said, "Ashe."

"Valarya." I gazed through her color-shifting eyes, watching her facial features twist. "What's wrong?"

Her eyes widened. Before I could realize what was going on, she pushed us onto the ground and began screaming.

A shadow engulfed us.

A shadow. No, not just a shadow.

Multiple screams erupted around us. I scrambled up from the ground, pulling Valarya up with me.

Then I glanced overhead.

"Holy shit, is that a dragon?" the captain yelled, pointing at the obsidian creature looming over us.

The ship swayed with the beating of the dragon's wings. Valarya and I fell to the corner of the ship. Her body shook. As she reached to get up, her arm bent down. "Ashe, I can't move. Why can't I move!"

No, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening. In the far distance, a winged creature loomed, flapping its wings. Waves of wind hit the ship, knocking us into the crates.

My eyes raced to find Valarya.

Eyes shut, body still—

A hand touched my shoulder. "Nicholyn, what do you say we have a little conversation?" and eerily familiar voice rasped.

Leaping forward, I grabbed ahold of a crate as a weapon, but there was no one behind me.

"Oh, you must be faster than that," it said again. I hurled my body back, only falling against the walls of the ship.

"Drop the crate."

My hands let go of the crate.

"Get up. Stand up."

My feet stood my body up.

Everybody that had been on the deck was collapsed on the ground, the water spraying them. Alone, I sprinted to Valarya, shaking her.

Please, please be awake.

The dragon spewed fire in the distance as it made its way back here.

"Stay away from us!" I yelled, wrapping Valarya into my arms as tightly as I could.

Again, the hand rested on my shoulder. Every bone in my body stilled at that razor-sharp touch. "I'm afraid," it said, the hands tightening, "I'm right behind you."

I jerked and saw him. The gray hair, the warrior-build, the veins that wrapped around his throat... the color shifting eyes.

He dragged my to my feet and threw me to the other side of the ship as if I was a sack of feathers. "Now, you know I gave you a second chance at life; do not make me—"

"Get away." My hand tightened on the rails.

Cadice laughed, nudging Valarya's hand with the tip of his shoe. "Don't worry, I'll make this quick. I just need a quick favor from you."

Zian, Zian, Zian—

"Nick, your brother is awfully determined. Does he know the secrets you hold?"

"Don't talk about my brother," I commanded.

He cocked his head and knelt. My insides burned as he traced a finger over Valarya's eyelid. "So I assume he doesn't. Very well—that's not what I came here to ask."

"I don't care what you came here to ask."

"You should." Cadice rose back up, taking a step toward me. "It's late at night and I wouldn't like to intrude on everyone's sleep schedule. Help me out, Nick. Or Ashe. Whatever your name is these days. Life was easier before all these complications of life or death."

An irrational part of me wanted to ask if he was a Saint or a poet. "Get to the point," I grounded, my muscles aching to give him a blow to his nose.

"Don't rush me or I'll have the dragon burn you into nothing." Cadice shrugged off his jacket and handed it to me.

Mocking me. How dared he.

"Here's what I want, Ashe."

I was hurled to the post, black spots coating my vision. I needed to stand up—to hit him—

I was hurled again, this time farther back on the deck. Even without touching me, Cadice was able to command my soul to do his bidding. He could command any and every soul if he tried.

"Sink this ship," Cadice finally said.

The words hit me like hail.

"Sink the ship, Knightley."

My body fought against my mind. Fire brewed inside of me; like a rock was pressed against my chest before I sank to my knees.

"Sink the damned ship." Cadice yanked me by my collar. "Sink it."

"Burn, Cadice," I said, spitting at his face with whatever strength I could muster.

He tossed me to the ground and dragged me to the shrouds. "Damn it, I don't care if I need to break your arm off. You will sink this ship."

Zian, Zian, Zian—

The world slowly got darker and darker, and not because of the clouds over the moon. My wrists and neck pulsed.

My eyes fluttered.

The last face I saw was his.

*~⚜️~*
Valarya de Mertaire

Rain—

No, seawater doused me. Why were there bodies everywhere?

Where was Nicholyn? Where—

A scream echoed from the back of the ship, and it was his. It was Nicholyn's. I hoisted my skirt up, grabbing a knife off a knocked out man before racing to the back.

The dragon from earlier coated the ship in its shadow. Carefully, I turned the corner and spotted Nicholyn motionless on the ground, though his leg was writhing, as if he was swimming to get air.

"Ashe!" I swooped to the ground, grabbing ahold of his hands. "What's wrong. What happened!"

His eyes flew opened. "Val?" He looked around. Back at me. "Val, what?"

"What's going on? What's happening right now?"

He was silent.

Nicholyn glanced at my knife.

When he lunged for the knife, I dove back, knocking barrels of rum on the floor. "What are you doing?" I screamed, angling the knife at him.

"Val, give me the damned knife."

"What the hell!" I darted behind him when he lunged again, his walk drunken, like something was pushing him from behind.

The dragon blew a beam of fire as it dove downward, nearly knocking the posts of the sails.

"Sink the ship, Valarya. Sink it, please." He sounded desperate, like he was choking and the only thing that could save him was water.

"Are you an idiot?" I screamed back. Because, honestly, that was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. "Everyone on here is knocked out! We'll die..."

The look he gave was almost incredulous. As if to say, 'Well, obviously'. Nothing in his eyes spoke. Nothing in the way he stood, or grimaced, or blinked.

The entire world was silent again. Nothing, not even a breath, was heard.

"SINK THE SHIP," Nicholyn screamed, diving at me and rolling us down the captain's cabin steps. His hands pinned mine above my head, his face spewing hot air.

"Looks like I don't have the knife," I whispered, suddenly knowing exactly who I was speaking to. Kicking him off, I crawled underneath the table and watched him pull a sword from the barrels by the door.

I rushed out and also grabbed a sword. He wasn't running away from me; he was running toward something.

When I got back to the deck, I saw him sprinting to the shrouds.

I raced to the opposing shrouds. Nicholyn sliced the net holding the sails up, sending them hurling down to the front of the ship where many unconscious men laid.

I cut the shrouds on my end, knocking the sails out of that direction and into the sea. These people would not die.

The furrowed brows, mouth agaped Nicholyn stared at me. Now I was definitely tempering with death. Fine, then.

"You stupid—"

The final sail that hadn't fell came swinging, hitting him squarely on his back. He toppled to the floor face first.

"What was that, sir?" I wrapped my hands around Nick's throat and squeezed, praying that he'd give up and sleep.

My plan worked until he hurled his leg up and knocked me across the deck. The world spun as I coughed myself up, and before I knew it, Nick had his hand in the air.

The dragon swooped down on command, burning a precise line of flames down the center of the ship. I crashed back down, my body numb to the collapsing wood shards.

Screaming, sprinting around, I gathered as many bodies to the far end of my part of the ship.

They would not die.

Fanning the smoke from my face, the silhouette of Nicholyn appeared beyond the flames. "Valarya!"

"Save the bodies!" I called back, knowing that, for now, Cadice had killed us.

We were dead.

Nicholyn's silhouette raced, his shadow dragging bodies away from the sinking middle.

We were dead. Borrowed time couldn't save us.

The dragon swooped down one last time, hitting Nicholyn's side of the ship and completely severing the entire thing.

"Nicholyn!"

No response. Nothing.